Abstract

The present study was aimed to investigate the yield and its contributing traits among indeterminate tomato genotypes in order to generate information regarding the extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. The experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three replications at Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, SHIATS, Allahabad during 2012-2013 cropping season. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among all genotypes for the characters. Analysis of coefficient of variation revealed that the magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation for all traits under study. The leaf curl incidence (39.73 and 39.74) and ascorbic acid (27.62 and 27.67) recorded high genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, indicating higher magnitude of variability for these characters, thus the scope for improvement of these characters through simple selection would be better. The estimates of heritability were high for all the traits and ranged from 95 to 100 percent, suggested that selection based on phenotypic expression could be relied upon as there is major role of genetic constitution in the expression of these characters. High heritability accompanied with high genetic advance were noted for fruit yield per plant (1129.78), plant height (43.37), number of flowers per plant (40.35), number of leaves per plant (25.48) and ascorbic acid (21.68) indicating that these characters are under additive gene effects and that these traits could be considered as reliable indices for selection and higher responses of this trait could be expected from selection.

Key words: Genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, Solanum lycopersicum L., yield, yield traits.